Page 394 of The Doctors Will See You Now

Obviously, thanks to my busy schedule, my movie references dated back quite some time.

“Christ, Nick,” I mumbled. “You’re pathetic.”

I tossed my phone, ensconced in its usual all-black phone case, to the bed, and it made a soft thud before disappearing into the camouflage of black sheets.

Of course, then it started to ring.

“Fuck,” I muttered, frantically combing through the sheets with my hands, trying to hit the solid surface of my facedown case.

It was on the fourth and final ring when I finally felt my hand graze it, rescued it from drowning by sheet, swiped my finger across the screen, and lifted it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“You sound lethargic,” my daughter said by way of greeting on the other end of the line.

“I’m fine, Lex,” I grumbled, rubbing at my temples to temper the pounding, as I stepped away from my bed and headed for the bathroom. I’d have to multitask this morning if I had any hope of making it to work on time.

“Wow. And irritable. How much did you have to drink last night?”

Fucking hell, why is my daughter so observant?

“Lex—”

“Is your urine yellow?” she cut me off to ask, her voice clinical. I shook my head and looked to the ceiling as she went on. “You might be dehydrated if you haven’t—”

“Lexi, I’m fine. What’s up? Why are you calling this early?”

“I need a ride to school. Mom and Wes have a meeting in New Jersey, and she told me to call you to see if you could take me because murderers ride the subway.”

“What?”

“Those are her extremely hyperbolic and generalized words. Not mine.”

I looked to the clock on the gray and white marble vanity counter of my bathroom and considered carefully. If I took Lexi to school, I’d never make it to work on time. I didn’t think I’d been late to work a day in my life, and people in the hospital were always counting on me. My job was important.

“Okay. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

Winnie and Wes’s street was quiet—for Manhattan anyway. Tree-lined stone sidewalks and elegant townhouses, it was a family neighborhood if ever I’d seen one. Of course, it was a family neighborhood for the wealthy, boxing out people without a flexible income in just property taxes alone. For most people, if they were lucky, $70,000 was a salary. Not the governmental cost of living.

I loved that they lived in something so nice, but I also feared the day they would move out of the city. I knew it was coming at some point, more and more of their work happening at the stadium in New Jersey and a chance for even more value for their money, and I knew I had no say in it. I also knew I didn’t deserve a say, but that didn’t make the reality any easier.

Three sharp knocks to the solid chestnut-colored wood of the door complete, I stepped back and waited for Lexi to answer.

What I wasn’t expecting was someone who would never, could never, be my number one fan.

“Nick?”

“Remy?”

Winnie’s oldest and most protective brother, Remy had a special vat of hate stored deep inside all for me. I didn’t blame him. I’d been a jackass to his little sister, and he’d picked up the slack as a consequence.

But he was one of the most prominent people in Lexi’s life. He loved her with a ferocity that made it impossible to even fake dislike him.

Still, all of that didn’t make our interactions any less uncomfortable.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded as though I were the enemy there to attack.

“Lexi called me to take her to school.”